Which Families Benefited from the Expanded Child Tax Credit? The Effects of Income, Race, and Education

This article reports on which families drew the child tax credit (CTC), prior to and during the implementation of President Joseph Biden’s expanded program, based on repeated surveys of eligible parents or guardians and yielding nationally representative results. We find that the CTC before the 2021–22 Biden reform had gained widespread participation, although the bulk of tax benefits flowed to middle- and upper-income families. In turn, four in five eligible families drew benefits from the expanded CTC, according to our direct surveys, a higher take-up rate than earlier estimated. Poor households and single-parent families participated at lower rates, with disparities tied to race or ethnicity and school attainment. Initial lower participation by Hispanic families was partially mitigated as the expanded CTC penetrated into diverse communities. Low-income families reported more intense financial hardship by mid-2022 after expanded CTC refunds ended. We show how the take-up of entitlements remains conditioned by family attributes.